Page 39 of Her Rabid Beasts

The guards shout at us for bursting out of the doors, so we slow to a power walk instead, giving Bastian the animus gargoyle a wave as we leave.

“Shit,” I mutter. “Fucking shit.”

“Tell me about it,” Connor says. “That was a bad one. So far, I’ve only seen mild inter-court disputes, but they’re usually dealt with privately. A public display like that is…”

“Brutal showmanship,” I say under my breath. “And very telling,”

“They have to put them in place, Lia,” Sabrina mutters. “It’s how they keep the peace.”

Oh, I know. I want to tell her I’ve seen and heard of worse in my own father’s court. Some of the things I saw as a child made this look tame. Including the one where my father executed my very first boyfriend via venom and made me watch as punishment for losing my virginity.

I had just hoped other courts would be better.

Who the hell was I kidding? And with Xander and Scythe presiding overthatdisplay? I should have expected it. Beasts who would presenttheir ownregina for execution are capable of… well, anything.

“And what about Raquel?” I ask. “Why did they have to stay back?”

“Oh,” Connor chuckles under his breath. “Well, Savage has made our little wolf anim a commander-in-training.”

“What?”I halt on the concrete path to our dorm.

The others nod seriously.

“Raquel is a broadcaster,” Stacey explains as we start walking again. “Pretty powerful. Once Savage realised, he brought them into the fold.”

A broadcaster is a wolf with telepathy so strong they are capable of blasting into the minds of groups of people. Just like how Savage apparently broadcasted to the entire dorm to escape before he almost blew up the place.

“Shit,” I say

“Yup.” Stacey pops thep.

Because we all know that if Raquel has been recruited by Savage, we know where Raquel’s loyalties have to lie. Whether they like it or not.

“I don’t know if you remember,” Sabrina says with a little smirk. “But you lethimfeed you.”

“Him who?” I ask lamely.

She knocks her shoulder into mine. “Girl, you knowwho!”

Henry chirps from my shoulder like he agrees with her.

I sigh. “I might have a vague memory of eating sometimes.” In truth, I do remember Savage sitting in front of me and offering me different types of bread and meat. Of all my memories, shadowy or otherwise, of being down there, his face presides over everything. Both him and Lyle.

“I dunno, Lia. I reckon you should give him a chance,” Sabrina says. “I’d give anything for my mate to come andhand feedme, even after I became a beast and almost tore off his arm.” She looks me up and down to indicate saidbeast.

“It was cute,” Connor shrugs. “He seems really smitten, actually. And he sent Eugene to watch over you when we were all at class.”

“Smitten,” I repeat in disbelief.

“I think,” Stacey sighs wistfully, “if you asked him foranythinghe’d do it.”

It’s hard for me to reconcile the Savage I knew from before to the one they’re talking about now. The wolf who came into my room and messed it up just to scare me. But the entire time, I’d known he was fighting his natural urge to care for me. He brought me that pink handbag after all. He stole my panties as if he couldn’t help it. Heat surges through my body at the thought of the way he pulled me into his arms before the trial. The way he wanted me with the same desperate need, the same way I’d wanted him.

Does he regret it? What he and his brothers tried to do to me?

That afternoon, Theresa comes to check on my mental health and brings with her one of Lyle’s formal appointment cards, his name signed in a sweeping fancy cursive with a fountain pen and all.

I don’t know how to feel about seeing him one-on-one.

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